The Islamabad High Court (IHC) on Wednesday fixed for hearing a petition seeking the disqualification of former premier Imran Khan as a lawmaker for “concealing” his putative daughter in his nomination papers. The plea will be heard along a list of cases slated for hearing on 20 December.
On 9 December, IHC Chief Justice Aamer Farooq issued a pre-admission notice to PTI chief Imran Khan and the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) on the petition of citizen Sajid Mehmood, asking their legal representatives to help the court decide if the petition is maintainable or not.
The petitioner seeks the disqualification of PTI chairman Imran Khan as MNA from the NA-95 Mianwali-I constituency, contending that all candidates contesting elections for any legislative office are required to furnish an affidavit in respect of their credentials and assets. He said Imran had wrongly mentioned two children — “Qasim Khan and Sulaiman Khan” — and had omitted the third.
“The respondent no. 1 [Imran Khan] has deliberately and willfully failed to declare his daughter Tyrian White in the relevant columns of the nomination papers and the affidavit appended therewith, hence he is not sagacious, righteous, honest and a man of good character in terms of Article 62 of the Constitution,” according to the petition.
The petition continued: “Article 62 of the Constitution, as interpreted by various judgments of the superior courts, prescribes that a candidate shall only qualify to be elected as a member of the National Assembly if he is of good character and is not commonly known as one who violates Islamic Injunctions; and he has adequate knowledge of Islamic teachings and practices; obligatory duties prescribed by Islam as well as abstaining from major sins.”
The petitioner urged the court to summon the former prime minister and inquire about the reasons for the violation of Article 62 of the Constitution, which says, “a person shall not be qualified to be elected or chosen as a member of Majlis-e-Shoora (Parliament) unless — he is sagacious, righteous, non-profligate, honest and ameen, there being no declaration to the contrary by a court of law”.
